Sharks starting to pick up points, Red Wings here without Lidstrom, reward for Braun, Havlat’s return — and more

Normally, you welcome the fact the Detroit Red Wings are practicing in San Jose. It’s a good chance to talk with Mike Babcock or his players about the always curious relationship between the two teams, for one thing — however exhausted that topic may seem by now.

But the teams were skating at the exact same time at Sharks Ice so decisions had to be made. Having had to leave the post-game scrum early last night, I opted to invest my time with the Sharks — looking back at that 2-1 shootout win over Nashville, looking at ahead to Saturday night’s game against the Red Wings.

In no particular order:

******The Sharks have now captured five of the six points on table over the past three games. Can they afford to think of themselves as getting out of the tar pit they put themselves in?

“No, I don’t look at it that way at all,” Dan Boyle said. “It’s very hard to gain ground. We can win the next three and if Colorado, Dallas and Phoenix win the next three, we’ll have gained nothing. We’ve just got to keep winning.”

No argument here.

Todd McLellan uses the Joseph Heller novel to describe how he wants his players to look at their current situation.

“I want them to have an urgency to their approach and to the way they apply their trades. Yet I want them to play relaxed and free — Catch 22,” he said. “But you can relax, you can go home today and relax and start preparing for the game tomorrow. And then when you come, you’ve got to bring your A game and it’s as simple as that.”

*****The Sharks are catching the Red Wings without Nicklas Lidstrom, who left Detroit’s current road trip to go back home because his bruised ankle bone hasn’t been healing. Pavel Datsyuk, on the other hand, will be back in the lineup after missing the past 11 games due to arthroscopic knee surgery.

Without those two, the Red Wings have been struggling with only one win in their last six games and going 0-for-California so far after stops in Los Angeles and Anaheim.

Don’t try to tell the Sharks they’re catching the Red Wings at a good time, though.

“It’s nothing you even think about,” Douglas Murray said of playing Detroit without Lidstrom. “It might be a different answer if you play a seven-game series and you might approach it differently. But a single game, it’s nothing to focus on.”

Says McLellan: “It (three-game losing streak) may motivate them more, they might be hungrier. I don’t know. I just know that we need to get ourselves on a streak and they stand in the way of that. We’ve got to be ready to come out and play our best. I can’t give you any other answer than that the rest of the year. That’s just how it is.”

*******We’re all used to McLellan shuffling his forwards around to create different line combinations, especially when things aren’t going well. Against Nashville, he kept his lines together for the most part, but mixed things up on the blue line where Justin Braun formed the top d-pair with Marc-Edouard Vlasic on several shifts, getting the most ice time — 19:39 — since Dec. 13.

How much of that was to reward Braun while maybe trimming Dan Boyle’s down a bit? Boyle did have 26:58 — 1:10 above his season average, but not as high as he sometimes gets in an overtime game.

“It was both,” McLellan said. “I thought Braun had a really strong game yesterday. We don’t always pick it up as coaches. Sometimes we miss it and we look after and say, ‘wow, we missed it, this guy is playing well.’ But we caught it and gave him a reward. He played a little bit more.”

Braun, who has been averaging 16:31 this season, took the extra minutes as an acknowledgement of his play as of late.

“I’m feeling good out there skating and trying to contribute when I can,” Braun said. “At this time of year, you’re rewarded for playing well and I’m trying to keep pucks out of the net and go from there. If offense comes it, it comes.”

Vlasic pointed out that he played with multiple defense partners against Nashville — Boyle, Brent Burns at times, Braun.

“Everybody was rolling,” Vlasic said. “All six of us were playing very well and he rewarded everybody by mixing it up like that.”

Me, I’ll let somebody else note who wasn’t playing last night.

******McLellan was also happy with what he saw from Marty Havlat in his first game back after being out since Dec. 17.

“I liked his game last night and I think he liked his game last night,” the Sharks coach said. “He had to feel good leaving the rink. You could see his skill level, you could see some of the plays that he made. He had the puck a lot, he was involved in the play. It was a good first step and you know he’s only going to get better from there as well.”

Havlat ended up with 18:47 ice time and McLellan said he could handle that.

“The one thing we didn’t have to do was remind him to keep his shifts short. He was managing himself well. He knew when it was time to be done,” he said. “He worked his way over at the right times and fresh guys went out.”

Havlat was indeed feeling good about his first game after missing 39 recovering from tendon surgery.

“It went pretty good – better than I thought it was going to go,” he said. “I felt better coming back this time than at the beginning of the season in Jersey and the most important thing is we won so that’s the most positive.

“I think we created a few chances as a line,” said Havlat who had one golden opportunity but was thwarted by Nashville goalie Pekka Rinne. “We were moving good and passing the puck good as a line, but the whole team played pretty good last night. I think we were the better team and battled to the last second and that’s why we got two points last night.

As far as getting his timing down, Havlat said that might still take a few games.

“The legs, hands and game speed is a little different than that in practices,” he said.

******Ryane Clowe’s shootout winner was his fourth of the season, tying him with Tyler Seguin of the Bruins for second best in the NHL. Each has four shootout goals this season and all were the deciders. Most deciders? That’s Ilya Kovalchuk of the New Jersey Devils with seven. Overall, Kovalchuk is an impressive 10-for-12 in the shootout.

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.

I would agree with you, if it was a temporary state of affairs, as you say. Problem as I see it, Braun has been playing good and getting better every game this year, while White and Murray to a degree have been getting worse every game.

so, I guess it is your definition of “temporary state of affairs”. Everyone on this blog has been riding the “Bench White” bus for at least the last 3 months. I think that 3 months definitely exceeds a temporary state of affairs.

Why has it taken so long to recognize Braun == Good, White == Bad;

And, yes, FREE GRIESS and FREE VANDY!!!

Hatrick Marleau

NoCup,

You forgot: Benn Ferriero==The Ugly

NB Finfan

My 2 cents on the healthy scratches…..

Discounting the core guys like D. Murray & Clowe, the guys sitting are the slowest guys. When we play grittier teams, I will expect to see Vandy,Winchester, White, etc… get playing chances.

When we play the teams that scoot, as Drew says, expect to see the faster guys out there.

SanJoseCupCrazy

Brody: Saw it, but I like our game over LA’s. I’m more concerned with Dallas and Phoenix and we have games in hand on those teams.

I certainly wasn’t feeling that as recently as two days ago, but at least as far as a Pacific Division crown goes, starting to get a good feeling about that. After that, it’s still looking like a tough road.

MLBSF

Honestly I don’t know why anyone would want to see the Sharks win the division simply because everyone else sucked more, and then watch the Sharks get humiliated in the playoffs.

Why would anyone want to look forward to that kind of torture?

If anything it will allow Wilson to say, hey what do you want from us? We won the division and made the playoffs. We’re still doing a good job.

The thing I liked about the game was it was played hard. Thee lines were reading each other well. When you bring back Havlet and put him on the second line. The pass were crisp and right on the spot. It gave 88 his blue line shot. Also freed Logan to goo to the net, and they are pacing themself throughout the game. A very solid game that we haven’t seen in a while.

As far as the goalies Griess needs to be in a few games to be at playing strength. To be able to know the player and how to read there movements. So I feel that would be the best for him

NoCupwithDW

Random thoughts on last night’s game.

Winnik: Please, hit someone. to many times saw a fly by and a swipe at the puck.
Gialairdi: Liked his energy and willingness to go to the front of the net. Avery with more skill?
Pavs/JT/Cooch: excellent game. played fast with nice short passes.
PM/Havlat: see above.
Aggressive Dman: awesome job by BB, Boyler, Demers, Braun, Pickles jumping into the play. also, working hard to keep pucks in the O zone, cleaning up our end.
3rd an d4th lines: excellent job with an aggressive forecheck.
Drew on Niemi: agree, Niemi needs to control the game better. best game in months.
Best:, Martin Havlat played an awesome, MEAN game. liked the trip of Rinne in the second period. Solid D zone coverage.

Worst: D Murray, horrible positioning on the PK goal allowed. Fischer actually looked twice at Hornquist because he could not believe he was that wide open

Finally, playing patty with Havlat seems to allow Patty to utilize his speed. Would like to see how Galiardi or Winnik would do with PM/Havlat.

Overall, excellent well played game.

NoCupwithDW

Hatrick.

UGLY== HANDZUS 🙂

I like the way Feriero plays. Just do not think he will do well as a 4th line player. IMHO his skills are better suited as a top 6.

ZEKE

If you add 1 point per game to the 6 teams fighting for 3 spots, here’s what you get:

dal 93
SJS 92
Phx 91
LAK 91
Col 90
Cal 90

Get hot and you’re in. Have a good record against the other teams in the mix with you and you’re in.

Win some, lose some but get points in the losses and you get in.

Play average hockey — you’re on the bubble

Hit a slump — you’re done.

Dirty Bionic Eyeball

Things are looking up in Shark Land.

kingfish100

Oh my, let’s hope no Shark coach nor any Shark manager reads this blog so as not to get any wrong ideas in their heads. Again, TMAC and DW have forgotten more about hockey than anyone in here will ever understand. You people remind me of the fans at the Tank who used to cheer every time the Sharks iced the puck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

g-bum-man

Kingfish100—sometimes knowledge gets in the way of clarity, understanding and self- criticism. Innovation is often the result of the inexperienced person walking into the room, taking a look, and saying “hey, the emperor has no clothes!”

Too many people grow up playing a sport “the right way” and don’t experiment, try new things. The get left behind. It is called progress.

Do you really see Tmac as an innovator? Or DW? Not me. I think they are both good, solid hockey men. I do NOT think they are visionaries in their sport. Neither has come up with their own system of playing the game. They have copied others.

People like Bill Walsh–who come up with a whole new approach to a game, I will shut up for. DW and Tmac? Nope. They haven’t earned the right to avoid criticism. They haven’t even won a cup. That is the first measure for hockey greatness. When they win a cup, I will trust their judgement about playing players like Colin White a little more. Until then, I will watch White make a tunover in the d-zone and I will scream “%@#&!!!!! Why don’t you EVER play Vandermeer!”

g-bum-man

FYI–that doesn’t mean I don’t have tremendous respect for people with tons of experience. Just pointing out that it sometimes makes them myopic.

Snow Shovel

g-bum-man – Hear, hear!

kingfish100 – TMAC and DW have forgotten more about hockey …

That’s what is worrying, what they might have forgotten. Think of the basics like passing, checking, playmaking, goaltending…

tifososquali

g-bum-man. Said
“People like Bill Walsh–who come up with a whole new approach to a game, I will shut up for. DW and Tmac? Nope. They haven’t earned the right to avoid criticism. They haven’t even won a cup.”

Absolutely agree with you! Since when they should be untouched by comments and criticism of their actions? They have not shown that they are one of a kind, far from it.

Also, since when do you need to be a player, or have years of experience on something to give you the right to give an opinion? Who came up with this bizarre concept?
It’ll be a sad and silent day if and when this is “enforced” by the powers to be…who most likely don’t know any more about anything than anybody else.

slappy

g-bum@63
“They haven’t earned the right to avoid criticism.”

Well done!

slappy

tifososqual@66
“since when do you need to be a player, or have years of experience on something to give you the right to give an opinion? Who came up with this bizarre concept?”

I don’t get this. There is no one here that has ever said management and coaches and players don’t ever deserve criticism.

g-bum, I don’t think kingfish said that at all. Not literally at least. And, I’ll read words that aren’t there for a change, IMO, kingfish’s point is that these guys get more than their fair share of criticism by people that know so much less about the game. Result is usually misplaced criticism.

GP

As far as innovation goes…IMO, Hockey in North America has not had any “awakening” since the summit series vs the Soviets.

Also IMO, Scotty Bowman was the 1st to figure out how to implement a system and work ethic that comprised the team. IOW, the team didn’t have to rely on guys like Orr or Howe or Hull to single handedly win a game.

Result, everyone now copies, or tries to, the Bowman methodology and applies their own touches to it.

It all doesn’t look the same of course. Teams and coaches and players all are different. And interpretation by them all is obviously different.

Overall point I am making, innovations are so much more subtle over the recent years.

SanJoseCupCrazy

#55 MLB-DBAG: Why would I want to see my team win the division? Because I ROOT for my team. I want to see them succeed, unlike you who just seems to have a miserable life. You summed up your whole approach to this team on this blog with one pathetic post right there. “I’m incredulous! How could you people actually ROOT for this team to win the division?!?!” A loser attitude from a loser fan.

As far as your argument goes, unless the this team makes at least the Western Conference Finals, there are big changes coming regardless of whether we win the division. Management can point to a Pacific Division championship all they want, but it’s all about economics. If the fans aren’t happy, the fans don’t buy tickets and they can sell their argument to 3,000 empty seats at every game next year. Unless there’s a long run, no one is going to buy “we’re a player away, let’s run with the status quo and add a piece” argument next year.

By the way, Dbag, spring training is in full swing. Shouldn’t you be over ruining the Giants blog by now? After all, it’s only been 16 months since they won a World Series. Doesn’t your narcissistic mind think it has the answers for them too?

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